A portable coordinate measuring machine (“CMM”) is an electromechanical device used to measure the physical characteristics of an object in three-dimensional (“3D”) space. This typically relates to size, form, and position of features that are reported in either a cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical coordinate system. CMMs can be manually manipulated or computer numerical control (“CNC”) driven. The first portable CMM's were stationary and were typically affixed to a large steel plate or granite slab in a traditional right-angle X, Y, Z manner much like a machine tool and used a contact probe to take measurements. Current technology makes it possible to measure using both contact and non-contact methods on both stationary and portable CMM's. Portable CMM's are a class of devices that include articulating arms, laser trackers, optical trackers, and other 3D imagers and have become popular due to their flexibility and portability. These devices no longer require a granite slab that they are mounted to, so they depend on an extremely stable mounting setup to establish their initial (world) coordinate system. All measurements collected are kept relative to this initial coordinate system so it is of utmost importance that there is essentially no movement at the base of the measuring device. A portable CMM measurement system is made up of a measurement device, a data collection computer and interface software. The computers for stationary CMM's are typically desktop computers while portable CMM's need a more portable data collection device which often ends up being a laptop which still can be bulky and hard to manage in an industrial environment. Conventional metrology stands are used to provide a platform on which to operate portable CMMs such as measuring arms or laser trackers. The accuracy of any measurement made with a CMM depends on the rigidity and stable position of the stand. Additionally, air temperature, pressure and humidity can impact measurements taken by a CMM due to factors such as the physical expansion of materials based on temperature and the influence they have on the refractive index of air. Temperature plays a major role in thermal expansion and contraction of materials that are used to assemble these portable measurement devices. Length and diameter changes can be sources of error and add additional uncertainty to CMM measurements. Some existing CMMs have built-in environmental sensors, but many do not, and in any case conventional stands are subject to movement if, for example they are bumped or if they are subjected to sufficient vibration that the position of the stand moves relative to the object that is being measured.